Observation: There's some very romantic stuff in the Song of Solomon, also known as "Song of Songs." And there's also some stuff that's downright steamy. In typical fashion, the medieval Church assumed this was metaphorical language for how much the Church was in love with Christ...you know, um, spiritually...but it's plain from the text that this is a love song between a woman and a man. Interestingly for an ancient document, both the woman and the man get to sing their own perspective, in their own words.
Application: Like many Americans, I have always been a little uptight about sex. We didn't talk about it much as I was growing up. But romantic love, that was fair game. From a young age, I thought of myself as a writer, and love is what a writer writes about. In my teen years, as I started dating girls, I began to see a conflict between my faith, which told me to love God with all my "heart, soul, mind and strength," and my raging hormones, which wouldn't let my mind stray far from whichever girl I was infatuated with at the time. My spirit and my heart didn't match up...or at least I didn't think they did.
When Laura and I started dating, we had already been friends for six years. We already knew that we shared a lot of values, beliefs, interests, and a sense of humor. We had fun together. But what I learned along the way, and have been learning ever since, is that God and romantic love are not polar opposites. God doesn't "compete" with our partner or spouse for attention...at least that's not how it should work. Instead, God shines through our relationships. We can learn about God through the way we experience love with a significant other. God uses these powerful bonds to teach us about things like compromise, forgiveness, joy, perseverance and grace. Sex is a gift of God, too. God made us, and God delights in the way we were made, including the powerful intimacy we can form with others when we truly commit ourselves to their good. Even when/if our relationships end, God can still use the heartbreak to remind us that healing is possible, that there's more to you than just who you were as part of a couple, and that God's mercies are new every morning.
I'm grateful to God for Laura, my partner in life, for life. I'm grateful for the chance to be a better spouse to her, and by doing so, be a better disciple of Jesus.
Prayer: God, thank you for the gift of love and intimacy. Help us to use these strong bonds to build one another up, and heal the world. Amen.
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